If not for Edward Snowden’s whistle-blowing and release of details about NSA activities “it’s doubtful that many companies would have made these security changes.”

A Washington Metro bus is seen with an Edward Snowden sign on its side panel December 20, 2013. A White House-appointed panel last week proposed curbs on some key National Security Agency surveillance operations, recommending limits on a program to collect records of billions of telephone calls and new tests before Washington spies on foreign leaders. Among the panel's proposals, made in the wake of revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the most contentious may be its recommendation that the eavesdropping agency halt bulk collection of the phone call records, known as "metadata." REUTERS/Gary Cameron

A global push to strengthen online security will accelerate in 2014 thanks to increased hacking attacks and the cyber spying revelations of former National Security Agency analyst Edward Snowden.

Snowden’s mega-leak of documents detailing dragnet surveillance programs used by the U.S. to tap into phone and Internet connections has already prompted companies to roll out encryption and other web security improvements.

Google and Facebook, for example, say they will start to encrypt information between data storage centres while some enterprises and individuals have shifted to private cloud networks from the less protected public cloud.

If not for Snowden’s whistle-blowing and release of technical details about NSA activities “it’s doubtful that many companies would have made these security changes,” said American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project researcher Christopher Soghoian.

According to tech trend predictions from U.S. wireless carrier Verizon, the prolific nature of cyber spying and malware attacks will force corporations to increase cyber security-related budgets in 2014, as well as rethink traditional approaches to security management.

As enterprises continue to adopt mobile devices, bring-your-own-device policies and cloud platforms, Verizon says both in-house and third party security spending will rise significantly.

Adding to the sense of urgency over online security, it says, are emerging tools that use software to analyze large and complex data sets to learn more about victims and increase the virulence of attacks.

Along with worries over online security, abiding concerns about health will be another key driver of technological innovation in the coming year, research suggests.

From wireless blood pressure monitors to a wristband that tracks calories consumed, technology is being deployed to illuminate the body’s workings and ease worries about well being issues among North America’s aging boomers.

In fact, the wearable computing trend has that has seen smart watches unveiled to limited consumer interest is really taking off in the area of health related devices, Juniper Research says in its top 10 tech trends report for 2014.

Along with mobile fitness devices, the report says machine to machine connections that allow wireless and wireline systems to communicate with each other will see strong growth. Juniper also says artificial intelligence will move closer to the mainstream in the year ahead.

Google’s recent acquisition of Boston Dynamics, a company known for developing fast, animal-like robots — and Amazon’s announcement that it may use unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, to make deliveries to customers are cases in point.

Google, meanwhile, has already entered the race to commercialize driverless and self parking autos after Nevada became the first U.S. state to license such cars.

Juniper says the use of mobile devices with gesture technology and near field communication to complete retail transactions will continue to grow in both advanced and developing economies. The new year will also see strong advances in tablet PC use in education, it adds.

Long term evolution wireless standard subscribers will double in 2014, 4G LTE will start to roll out, Android’s low priced Ouya and other ‘microconsoles’ will disrupt home gaming and 3D printer sales will jump as HP, Samsung, and Microsoft come on board, Juniper concludes.

All told, 2014 will be another year of mobile, as cellphone and tablet ownership is set to surpass the PC market, according to analysts at research firm IDC Canada.

They foresee the number of mobile devices used in Canada and abroad overtaking the number of desktop and laptop computers in the year.

And Deloitte’s annual technology prediction says large screen phablets will make up a quarter of the smartphones sold around the world in 2014 — a 100 per cent jump year over year inspired in part by mobile gaming gains.

Still, there’s more than just technology in the emerging tech trends, says Peter Coffee, strategic research vice president at San Francisco-based cloud computing company salesforce.com.

Companies are learning to create new processes to maintain human connections in a digital age — working to personalize business communications even if the interaction takes place on an iPhone interface using voice activated controls.

“Behind every mobile device is a customer,” he said before taking part in the CIO Executive Summit in Toronto in early December.

“A scalable process can make everyone of those customers think they are having a one on one engagement with you.”

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